A Difficult Mission
by Aleia15
Summary: Set in the Lust, Love universe. Iruka has gone to deal with a former student turned traitor, Kakashi follows.


**A Difficult Mission**

"One of his students?" Kakashi said, enunciating the words slowly as if that would make them less real now than the first couple of times. No, they still sounded real and completely fucked up. "You sent Iruka to pursue a traitor who happens to be one of his students?"

From her seat behind the Hokage desk, Tsunade was staring at him with barely contained irritation. "Former student, brat," she grounded, her patience clearly at her limit. "And yes. It was necessary, not that I have to explain myself to you. I'm your Hokage, and his, something Umino seems to understand better than you do."

Kakashi could hear muttering and some exclamations from the few people still in the mission room. He didn't care if he was being disrespectful, that damned Tsunade had screwed up his plans for the weekend, probably for the rest of the week, sending Iruka after one of his kids.

"I'm going after him," Kakashi said to the Hokage in a voice that brooked no argument, "as reinforcement."

Tsunade nodded, as if she had been expecting that all along. "Do as you will." She passed him a scroll with the mission specifications, clear indication she had just been waiting for it.

"Just so you know, Tsunade-sama," Kakashi couldn't help to say as a parting shot. "You've just incapacitated two shinobi when you're short staffed. Iruka is going to take it out on my hide to relieve the stress from this fucking mission"

"Get out of here, brat!"

Kakashi wasn't worried about Iruka, not really. It wasn't that he doubted Iruka could complete the mission, and probably without so much as a scratch on him. The truth was, Iruka might well be a simple chuunin school teacher, but he was cunning, played dirty and was incredibly stubborn. In short, he was the worst kind of enemy anyone would want, Kakashi included.

No, that wasn't the reason Kakashi was in a hurry to catch up with him as he rushed from treetop to treetop. Had Tsunade told him Iruka had been sent to deal with enemy jounins, missing nins from other villages or any ridiculously strong foe, Kakashi would be at home drawing a bath and relaxing after his own mission.

He'd worry, of course he'd worry. Iruka was a chuunin, and as resourceful as he was, there were very strong people out there who might manage to injure or kill him. But that was par for the course with their line of work.

Sending Iruka to kill a kid he had nurtured and taught for years--Kakashi didn't even want to think about the consequences for Iruka's mind, that was his main concern. Iruka was a strong man, more in character than skills, but he was damned hard to kill. But he cared about the brats he taught, and being forced to dispose of one was going to hurt him deeply.

He pressed on, ignoring the aches in his body and the exhaustion from his own mission, Kakashi just hoped to get to Iruka before it was too late.

He wasn't.

The first thing he noticed was the smell.

He had not eaten anything in almost a day, and the smell of charred meat was at the same time appealing and revolting. His stomach grumbled, and his mouth watered, only the fact that Kakashi almost certainly knew the smell wasn't coming from food being cooked prevented him from salivating.

He stopped when he arrived at the clearing, the scene exactly the way his mind had pictured it a few seconds before. Fighting back a wave of nausea, Kakashi approached the figure standing before the fire.

"Iruka," Kakashi said, softly, and the man standing on the clearing turned to look at him.

_Fuck!_

Iruka was covered almost head to toe in blood and gore, a crumpled scroll held in one of his hands. At his feet the flames were devouring the remains of what it looked like two corpses, both beyond recognition now. The smell was stronger there, and Kakashi could also hear the sizzling meat and crackling of the fire on human fat.

After today, Kakashi was going to become a vegetarian.

Those were just surface thoughts, though, used to distract him from the fact that Iruka was staring at him with vacant eyes, no light or recognition in them. They were red-rimmed, but that was probably due to the smoke and the heat filling the clearing. Iruka's mouth was curled in a snarl, and his fist was clenching and unclenching regularly around the scroll. He looked seriously unhinged.

Kakashi was going to murder the bloody hag for this one.

"Iruka," he managed to say before a kunai was flying to his face, followed closely by a crazy chuunin trying to rip his head off.

Kakashi deflected the kunai easily, knocking it aside with the metal plate in his gloves before he had three of his own in his hand, all ready to fly at the target. He caught himself in the last second, not loosing them with an effort and using his other arm to parry some taijutsu moves he himself had taught Iruka.

He ducked and jumped to one side, putting some distance between the two of them and uncovering his Sharingan in the same movement. Iruka let the scroll fall to the ground, his hands moving quickly to form seals for a fire jutsu. Kakashi countered from the distance with a water one, rendering the fire harmless and drenching Iruka at the same time.

The shock of cold water seemed to insufficient to bring Iruka back to the present, though, and he redoubled his efforts to kill Kakashi.

With a sigh, Kakashi took a decision. He could go at Iruka with all he had, but the thought of killing his lover was less than appealing. The idea of being killed by him wasn't attractive either. He had to restrain Iruka.

Kakashi made two clones and sent them after Iruka, quickly teleporting to his blind spot while his clones engaged him. He gathered a small amount of chakra in his hand and aimed it at the back of Iruka's head, hoping not to have miscalculated the strength. He was about to deliver the hit when a loud crack behind him made him turn around and Kakashi saw another Iruka almost upon him.

Damn it! He knew he shouldn't underestimate Iruka and he had fallen prey to the oldest trick in the book.

Too late to defend himself without harming him, Kakashi let Iruka push him against a tree, a hand encircling his throat.

"Kakashi," Iruka growled, the sound threatening and pleading at the same time. There was a hand ripping down his mask and hard and demanding lips on Kakashi's a heartbeat later.

Yes, that was the other way to bring Iruka back, though Kakashi had been loath to use it. It was going to hurt, physically for him now and later for Iruka, when he came back to his senses. It had been the other way round last time and Kakashi had been unable to use Iruka for that kind of relief ever since.

Kakashi let his weapons fall to the ground and allowed Iruka to get rid of his clothes, not resisting the rough attentions bestowed on his body, waiting for the moment Iruka let his guard down. Kakashi curled his arm around Iruka's neck, trying to direct and gentle the kiss a bit, but Iruka was having none of it. He bit Kakashi's lips almost savagely, grabbing his writs and pinning them to the tree before taking a step back and bodily turning Kakashi around.

"Ouch," Kakashi protested when his head hit the trunk, but made no other move to stop it.

Iruka growled again, his mouth moving to Kakashi's neck and biting, his hands grabbing his hips forcefully. Kakashi winced at the pain and took a deep breath, pressing his forehead against the tree, knowing where this was heading to. There was no way he'd allow this to continue, for Iruka more than himself.

In a quick movement, Kakashi pressed his hands against the trunk and used all his strength to push Iruka off him, turning around sharply and connecting a hard blow to the back of Iruka's neck before he had the time to realize what was happening.

Iruka crumpled to the ground, unconscious, and Kakashi rearranged his clothes as best he could.

When Iruka regained consciousness they were a long way from that clearing, the smell of smoke and fire still clinging to their clothes the only reminder of what had happened there.

"Kakashi?" Iruka asked, the puzzlement evident in his voice enough to make Kakashi stop their trip back to Konoha, climbing down the tree they were currently standing on and resting on the ground. He deposited Iruka against the trunk and sank down next to him, his breath fast and uneven.

"Yeah," he said, closing his eyes for a second to rest. He had used the Sharingan right after coming back from his mission, where he had been forced to use it as well, and though he was still capable of getting the both back to Konoha, that didn't mean he wasn't fucking exhausted.

Even if nothing had happened with Iruka, his prediction to Tsunade had been accurate. He was going to be useless for an entire week thanks to chakra depletion. He knew the moment he stopped moving there was going to be not starting again.

"What are you--" Iruka trailed off, his sharp intake of breath enough to tell Kakashi the memories from before were returning.

He cracked one eye open in time to see Iruka jump to his feet and stumble a couple of steps away from him, hunching over in pain and puking his guts out. Kakashi made a move to stand and go to him, but found his legs weren't cooperating with him. After what felt like an eternity, Iruka collapsed back, falling on his arse on the ground.

"Here," Kakashi said, extending his hand with a flask of water. Iruka turned and looked at him with a frown, the expression turning into one of relief seeing the water in Kakashi's hands. He half crawled, half stumbled his way to Kakashi and sat down next to him, taking a gulp of water and spitting it after rinsing his mouth. The next sip he swallowed greedily.

"Thanks."

They rested in silence for a couple of minutes, the sounds of the forest surrounding them comfortingly.

"You came after me when you heard," Iruka said and it wasn't a question. His voice had a note of reproach in it, something that Kakashi wasn't expecting. It was usually him who misinterpreted something Iruka said or did, he wasn't used to be questioned. He didn't like it.

"Yes."

"You didn't think I was capable of doing my job on my own?" Iruka asked sharply.

Kakashi shook his head. "I knew you would have no trouble dealing with them," Kakashi admitted. "But I didn't want you to do it. He was your student not too long ago."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

They fell silent again, Iruka leaning slightly against Kakashi's side. He could feel the small tremors coursing his frame, and with a lot of effort he put an arm around Iruka's shoulders and pressed him harder against his body.

"You stopped me in the clearing when I was about to fuck you," Iruka said after a while, his voice stronger now, the body completely still.

"I did," Kakashi's mouth curled in a smile, Iruka sounded like himself again, which was good. "You're going to have enough nightmares about today without adding raping your lover to the list of things to feel guilty about."

A deafening silence greeted Kakashi's words and he cursed himself for letting his mouth speak without leave from his brain. "I've let you do me like that before, I've never thought about it in those terms," Iruka said after what felt like an eternity.

Kakashi knew that, but it was different seeing it from the other side, especially considering the difference in their skills. "I know, but I--"

"Is this your way of telling me to restrain you the next time it happens?" Iruka asked quietly, pressing his lips against Kakashi's neck and depositing a soft kiss on the still exposed skin.

Kakashi shrugged. "I guess."

Iruka looked up at him, his eyes still a bit haunted but showing his usual gentleness. He leaned a bit forward and kissed Kakashi's mouth, slow and deep and incredibly loving. Kakashi opened up to the kiss and closed his eye, enjoying the taste and feel of Iruka, the way his agile tongue entwined with his. He was slightly breathless when they pulled apart.

"You're not going to be able to move yet, are you Kakashi?" Iruka asked looking intently at him.

"No, I'm drained," he admitted.

Iruka barked a laugh and rested his back against the tree again, his head falling on Kakashi's shoulder. "You suck at being my reinforcements, you know," he said fondly, and Kakashi chuckled.

"Yeah," he said closing his eye again and snuggling up to Iruka. "I know."

…


End file.
